Lessons learned from a Memphis paper route

Readers learn on the very first page of Paperboy, Vince Vawter’s touching middle grade novel, that the young narrator has a problem with words, at least with spoken words. “The funny way I talk is not so much like fat pigs in cartoons as I just get stuck on a sound and try to push the word out,” writes the paperboy, who prefers...

Where magic and science meet

Maile Meloy’s middle grade books mix adventure with historical fiction, scientific curiosity and a hefty dose of thrilling, mysterious magic. They also feature extensive artwork that helps to tell the story, so Meloy’s fans won’t be surprised to learn that she considers herself a visual thinker.In fact, Meloy says in a call...

Exploring the magical power of friendship

Though his first book for children was 2005's Pond Scum, Alan Silberberg first attracted our attention with the publication of Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze in 2010. This unexpectedly tender book combines humor and insight with Silberberg's own cartoon-style drawings to tell the story of a boy dealing with an aching sense of loss...

For a lonely gorilla, an outpouring of love

Previously best known as the co-author of the mega-selling Animorphs series, Katherine Applegate vaults into the ranks of literary luminaries in the children’s book world as the 2013 winner of the Newbery Medal. Her moving novel, The One and Only Ivan, was inspired by the real-life story of a gorilla caged at a shopping mall in Washington...

The numbers never lie

In both of Clare Vanderpool’s artfully written novels, the young protagonists’ fathers yank them out of the lives they’ve known and deposit them in unfamiliar surroundings, where they must make sense of the past and find their way in a strange new present.But while Abilene (the main character in the 2011 Newbery Medal winner ...

A boy and a bedsheet take flight

In his first published book, acclaimed director and screenwriter Gary Ross takes young readers on a high-flying journey that stretches all the way from a boy’s bedroom to a pirate-infested island and a hidden canyon. Bartholomew Biddle and the Very Big Wind is a rousing adventure story with a nostalgic feel, told entirely in rhyme and...

Old and new friends on the riverbank

Jacqueline Kelly has had a mole, a badger, a rat and a toad in her head for 50 years. But not to worry—it wasn’t due to anything frightening or medically improbable. Rather, the four are the charming protagonists of The Wind in the Willows, one of Kelly’s lifelong favorite books.Kelly, a 2010 Newbery Honoree for her...

A story shared by mother and daughter becomes every girl's adventure

It all started in a doctor’s office more than 20 years ago. Alice Randall (The Wind Done Gone, Ada’s Rules) and her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams (now 25), filled their hour-long wait not with old editions of Highlights magazine, but instead with their own story of a little black princess on a magical island.Since that day,...

A political princess

Author Shannon Hale set the bar high for herself with the publication of Princess Academy in 2005. The fairy tale won a Newbery Honor, and countless fans were taken with the book’s heroine, Miri, and her home in Mount Eskel. Hale intended the novel to stand alone, but Miri, Britta and friends bubbled to the surface of her thoughts over...

Mysteries in middle school

Rebecca Stead, the Newbery-winning author of When You Reach Me, has written another heartfelt and funny novel set in New York City. In Liar & Spy, an awkward seventh grader, Georges, moves to a new apartment building and is recruited to join the Spy Club, run by a mysterious boy named Safer. Along with his little sister, Candy, Safer shows...